Jim McGrath

A global, free and open Internet is what Gary Shapiro, president and CEO of the Consumer Electronics Association wants. He advocates for this in a Mashable editorial. He also criticizes the U.N.’s International Telecommunication Union treaty that could result in increased Internet regulation in certain countries. http://mashable.com/2013/03/05/us-must-protect-internet-freedom/
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Bernard Langs, associate director of development at Rockefeller University, writes a letter to The New York Times criticizing the de-emphasis of humanities in higher education. “Work is now deemed as a brutal survival of the fittest, and thus the panic toward believing in a so-called practical-only education” http://www.nytimes.com/2013/06/24/opinion/for-the-graduate-just-one-word-reality.html?ref=opinion
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Scientists Michael Turner and Moses Chan urge the Senate to pass the Helium Stewardship Act to allow the Bureau of Land Management to continue operating its helium reserves in Texas. Failure to pass the bill could result in a shortage of the gas, used in semiconductor manufacturing and health care, they say. http://www.politico.com/story/2013/06/looming-helium-disaster-opinion-92990.html
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Sen. John Thune, R-S.D., writes an editorial for The Hill advocating for more modern laws for telecommunications. He says that most of the laws that regulate the ever-growing tech sector are more than two decades old, and are stalling job growth. http://thehill.com/opinion/op-ed/306377-old-regulations-inhibit-new-technologies
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In an editorial written for Politico, Sen. Mike Enzi, R-Wyo., says eliminating dollar bills would save the government $4.5 billion. The potential savings, according to the GAO, result from the longer life and recyclability of coins. One-dollar coins could take the place of 10-dollar bills, according to Enzi. http://www.politico.com/story/2013/06/money-common-sense-coin-could-save-mint-93068.html
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Hands-free is not risk-free A New York Times editorial cites a AAA study finding that so-called hands-free devices can cause as much distraction to drivers as talking without the device. The Times says that these results justify banning all non-emergency communication while driving. http://www.nytimes.com/2013/06/24/opinion/hands-free-distractions.html?ref=opinion
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More of our opinions: Porn district XXX’ed We lost count some time ago of all the dashed hopes and busted plans for development along the Hudson River. Yet done right, a project alongside our greatest natural asset could quite literally transform the Capital Region. Operable words: done right. So let’s at least be thankful that […]
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Our opinion: Support emerges within the party for immigration reform. Any political comeback requires accepting that 11 million illegal immigrants are here to stay. So here come the Republicans, confronting immigration and the political troubles that accompany it. The rest of the country may have figured out that our current laws don’t work, that the estimated […]
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More of our opinions: Halfmoon farm survives The legislative action that most impressed us last week didn’t happen in Albany, but on a farm in Halfmoon. Edmund Rucinski won’t have to endure watching his family’s nine-decade-old dairy farm auctioned off. For that, Mr. Rucinski — and anyone else committed to preserving what used to be […]
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Our opinion: The governor and the president try to guide and influence press coverage. In the end, that often backfires. In Albany, Gov. Andrew Cuomo’s administration a special website, known as “Newstracker.” It keeps tabs on every press inquiry to every state agency and every request made under the state’s Freedom of Information Law. In Washington, […]
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